Will be creating independent European financial institution to trade with Iran: France
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Le Maire said that Europe is showing that it is capable of "resisting" the two great world powers - the US and China.
France's finance minister said that a European-backed system to facilitate non-dollar trade with Iran and circumvent US sanctions should be established in the coming days.
The "special purpose vehicle" allowing European countries to trade with Iran will be created in the next few days French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on France Inter radio.
"The United States imposed extra-territorial sanctions to Iran. That means that our companies can no longer do trade with Iran because they can simply not get paid as all the payments go through banks which depend on American banks and American investments," Maire said.
France foreign minister had already spoken about this earlier last week.
Le Maire said that through this agreement which should be signed in the next few days, Europe is showing that it is capable of "resisting" the two great world powers, the US and China.
"We are going to create in the coming days an independant European financial institution with Great Britain, Germany and France. The agreement will be signed in the next few days so that we are can continue, thanks to this independant financial institution, to trade with Iran even if the United States doesn't want that," Maire informed.
Meanwhile, Iran said on Monday it was not holding talks with France over its ballistic missile development, after Paris said it was ready to impose more sanctions if European attempts to address the programme in discussions with Tehran made no progress.
French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had said on Friday that France was ready to impose further curbs if no progress was made in talks over the programme, described by Tehran as purely defensive but seen in the West as a destabilising factor in a volatile region.
"Our missile programme is a defensive programme that we only discuss it inside the country. I cannot confirm holding any secret talks with France over our missile programme," Qasemi said, when asked about Le Drian's remarks.
"We talk about regional and political issues with France ... but our missile capability is not negotiable ... we have repeatedly said that during our political talks with France."